It hasn't escaped my notice that a lot of people are struggling at the moment. I don't think it's just my friends, I think it's just what life is like in this fallen world.
There are those who are struggling in the wake of illness or grief; those whose relationships are crumbling around their ears; those who are finding it hard to make ends meet or muster the energy to care for those around them; there are those who see no hope for the future. A brief look around our world - our local church - leaves us in no doubt that there is a lot of crying going on.
God is not taken aback by our tears, he knows they are going to flow. After all, he encourages us to weep with those who weep in our congregation (Romans 12:15). But he does have an opinion about how we cry...
Hosea 7:14 shows there are two ways to direct our tears: we can wail on our beds or we can cry out to the Lord.
Wailing on our beds is fairly futile. It may provide a small emotional release but all it really achieves is puffy eyes and soggy sheets. It is an expression of pain but an expression that is addressed to an inanimate object. To the best of my knowledge no pillow or duvet has ever responded to an outpouring of despair in any meaningful way - they just remain fluffy and damp. Soft, yes but ineffectual.
Crying out to God from our hearts, on the other hand, is as comforting and constructive as it gets. Sobbing on our heavenly Father's welcoming shoulder is an expression of trust, a relationship-building act, a turning to the source of all comfort and an articulation (albeit rather desperate and stumbling) of our desire for him to act. And act he will - in the ways he knows best, in ways that will certainly change us and quite possibly change some aspects of our situation too.
When we place the two options starkly in front of us, it's obvious that the two don't compare: one is pointless - the other loaded with hope. But how often do we let ourselves and our friends indulge in the former and forget the latter completely?
If you need to cry today, please do. Don't hold back. But make sure you're crying in the right way ... Forget the pillow, cry out to the one who loves you more than you can imagine and has the power to help you more than you know.
